Academia and conservatism

Posted by Helen Saturday, August 04, 2007

An interesting analysis of the position of the conservative academic in Britain and the United States by Professor Jeremy Black. Most of it, I am glad to say, is not yet anothe complaint about the difficulties of academic life but there is not enough on the most difficult subject of all - financing of universities. Worth reading, though.

2 comments

  1. Simon Harley Says:
  2. Do we classify universities in Britain as public? If so, then technically American colleges are cheaper. These figures are from last year;
    http://money.cnn.com/2006/10/24/pf/college/college_costs/index.htm
    but USA Today published recently published this year's averages, and with the exchange rate a perfectly good public university in the USA costs less than the equivalent over here (factoring the maximum a Briton can pay a year towards it). It's only when you start heading to the plethora of tiny private colleges or the large ones with the obscene endowments that tuition fees spike. It's interesting to note that both countries charge through the ears for accommodation of the like, and with the large number of campus-based Universities in the USA their students suffer for a longer period of time, compared to the usual one year in halls here.

     
  3. Anonymous Says:
  4. "Do we classify universities in Britain as public?" Good question. Strictly, they are not - they are not owned by the government; they are independent, charitable bodies with their own Royal Charters. But the Government treats them largely as its plaything, because it has them by the goolies in two ways. First, it dominates their funding. Secondly, it can use its ability to pass Statute Law on anything it damn well pleases, to bully and harass them.

     
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